First Dirt Grow

[SONIC-D]

My first real grow with soil and all for under $100.00 including a 400w metal halide light! I spent $13 for soil, $16 for pots (but I bought 32) $5 for nutes, $8 for a ph/light and moisture meeter, $35 for the metal halide from a shop going out of buisiness and I had the cfl's but they are like $8for 2 and $10 for the jiffy starter kit, the cost of my grow $95 the price of sweet tasting buds I grew myself from seed-priceless! lol also if I do get a Thermometer for $5 that would make it $100 even not bad!.

OK, I started this journal in November but due to computer problems I am just now posting it in feb but I’m only half way there so here it goes!

November 26 I got home from work and started 16 bagseed for sprouting. It was a mix of bagseed I only keep seeds if it was really good stuff. I have my own method that seems to work great for sprouting seeds nothing special just damp felt, why felt? I dont know a friend always swore by it and I've always used it with great success also a nice warm spot usualy my heat pad for my Tarantula and his light.

Swee I'ts December 1st all 16 seeds sprouted I put them in jiffy pots under a 2700/68w at a 300w equivalent CFL.

I have them in a jiffy starter kit with dome the felt cloth that comes with its is missing in the pic but I did use it as it keeps the moisture right. I use to have a Styrofoam one that had a reservoir and a riser and Rockwell cube would sit on it the cloth absorbed the water from the reservoir and kept the Rockwell perfect, It’s mostly a simple wick method. Normally I grow all my plants with some kind of wick system and I will again after this run I just wanted to get started and try dirt growing. All my friends say it’s so much easier than hydro and just as fast with a higher yield we will see I guess.

I did read most of this forum for 3 months before I started so I got some direction and idea but from what I know I feel it won’t be any faster. I did grow with a home made hydro system once before with good results but that was like 8 years ago.

See the pic below I have all the pics along the way bear with me until I can get them uploaded within the next 2 days along with all the other notes I been keeping im not done yet but at the start of this journal I’m half way there but hitting some snags and may need help

 

[SONIC-D]

While they were sprouting I had to decide on lighting I started with a big cfl light and its working ok and I was going to go with a bunch of cfl's and only grow a few plants. After looking around I found 400w metal halide for $35 that run on 110v from a closing factory that's a lot cheaper than all those cfl's and I should have better results. After a few days with the cfl I put the metal halide in the closet and had to confine it all with a small fan and a humidifier behind the fan blowing through the door I left the door slightly open to allow circulation.

On December 5th I transplanted the jiffy cubes to blue plastic party cups slotted on the bottom with a piece of felt running through it and into the dirt to absorb the nutes. I used generic "metro mix" non nute potting soil it was cheap from a local nursery for only 13.00 a large 3 cubic foot bag. This was more than enough to do the cups and all 16 pots I got 4 gallon black nursery pots for under a buck each. So my pots are ready to go as well just waiting transplant they will be hand watered.

I will post pics of every step later this weekend sorry.

 

[SONIC-D]

December 20th I transplanted them to the nursery pots their final home! I did forget to put rocks in the bottom oops we shall see if it was a mistake probably was but too late now I think.
Now I started a nute schedule using ¼ teaspoon of Ddyna Ggrow (5.00 cheap nutes) to a gallon of water and 2 drops of super thive. I water the plants daily with one cup of water a day I only grew once before using a home made hydro system it came out great and was much simpler. Since I'm using soil and don't have a green thumb so I have a stick in meter that measure light, ph, and moisture, this keeps me from under or over watering. I bought this from home depot for 8.00, and it was a great help since I can push it all the way and see what is wet and what is dry so I can adjust my watering.
I put all 16 of the babies in the closet with the 400w metal halide light it was for a high bay so it is close enough to the plants I have 2 light meters and I'm doing ok with it according to some sites and the meters. The fan and humidifier going and I don't have a clue of temp its winter so I have the heat on and pots of water by the vents to help with humidity but its comfortable up there the light cycle is on 24/7 right now

 

[SONIC-D]

January 1st there about a foot tall now I’m increasing the nutes to double now it’s a ½ teaspoon of dyna grow and ¼ teaspoon of some other nutes a friend gave me to 2 gallons of water. I have a 2 gallon container since I need more water it seems perfect I let it sit over night then add the nutes the next day and water them. I’m adding about 1 -1-1/2 cups of nutes to the plants daily except Saturdays I only use ½ to 1 cup of plain water Sundays no nutes at all, no water nothing at all call it a day of rest. The plain water should help with nute and salt buildup and a day without allows it to dry out a bit to allow air to get to the roots.

January 10th there getting too tall for the closet it’s a tapered attic type closet with a 4 foot ceiling not to mention i have 16 plants and should only have about 12-14 so thats pushing it. But due to the light its time to move them since I cant raise the light. I’m moving them out into the open spare bedroom and starting 12/12 light cycle. I will use the closet set up later for clones with the cfl back in i made a beter set up for the clones you will see in a pic later its cool!.

I added a floor heater since its kind of cold still no temp and humidity gage I know there cheap I just dont know why I hav'nt picked one up yet. I still just the dummy meter in the soil and its worth its weight x 10 in gold.

6 plants seem to be sativa at early looks, the others seem to be indica and look very nice. No sex yet sorry!

I am still watering the same way 5 days of nutes 1day of plain water and one day of rest.

There looking very good I took pics have them in the camera but can’t download them to the pc yet. I don't think iIwill post any more tonight since it's kind of cought up to now except a few weeks of growing and i know the sex (I got Real lucky) and I need to get the pics up of all my progress

 

[SONIC-D]

OK HERES SOME PICS I FINALY GOT MY PC RUNING!!!!

heres my idiot meter

my nutes:

and a quick shot of my crop

 

[SONIC-D]

SWEET! Today I’m at work and a guy gave me another 400w metal halide light it’s a square out door parking type light, It’s a all in one type of light I may build a small box and remove the ballast, starter and wire it into a junction box. Then plug the light and small hood shield into the box and the box into the socket or I may just mount it in my closet. Any suggestions here will be great

I started to clone last night it didn’t go great especially since I am way past the 21 day of flowering stage. I cut 12 clones 3 from 4 of my best plants. The jiffy set up was all primed and set. I used rooting powder and ¼ nute solution and put them in the jiffy pots. I called today at lunch was told they look good!. They all have some flowering on them but I read another post about cloning being better when in flowering stages.

I’m real glad I got this light because I draped clear plastic over a bar above the tray instead of the dome because the clones are too tall for the dome. And put the light in there kind of like a small green house but my 300w CFL light was only working about half of its potential it was dim so it’s going out, so perfect timing. You can see in the pics my small clone center.

Thats is a pic of my closet too its 3 foot wide by 15 foot long by about 5 feet tall and it’s a tapered ceiling. I would like to dedicate this space to vegetation and clones. If doing both I was going to go 24/7 light what do you all think? Probably 12 smaller plants in plastic cups as well as the small stand for my clones and the mother in here.

I am ultimately trying to time out about 12 plants in both veg and flowering 4 stations 6 plants each in a monthly cycle if I can. I only have 2-400w metal halides right now I want to get at least one 400 or 600 high pressure sodium. If I get that then there would be 400w to each 6 plants I would just rotate them from the metal halide to the hps the final few weeks keep a circulation going.

 

[SONIC-D]

Well my plants don't seem to be growing, maybe the pots are too small they still seem to be budding slowly they just seem stunned. I started another journal today I'm switching to a hydro setup to hell with dirt! Also I picked up some bloom nutes called "AWESOME BLOSSOMS" so I will see if it helps and how it goes plus I picked up 8 gallon nursery pots as I believe there only in 3 gallon I may have to switch to 5 gallon they sell 5 gal grow bags by me for .50cents what do u guys think?

 

[McBudz]

Looks good. I'd spend another 20 bucks and get a good digital ph meter. Look for ph 600 by milwaukee. paid 21 for mine and works great.

Don't give up on the budding clones. They take a little longer to get going but when they fluff out they are well worth it. My crop right now is flowering clones and I love the results.

Good growing

 

[SONIC-D]

Thanks ill run by the hydro store tomorrow and see if they have that ph meter, I have 2 of those cheap 3 in 1 meters right now and switch them from plant to plant. I know they wanted to sell me the cheap kits with drops last time I asked so I may be better off at hd or wally world but they have some digital 3 in 1 pens at the hydro shop. I may buy one of for the switch to hydro although I never really needed it but I did it old school but I had a ppm pen I got from a friend wish I had it now!

It looks like the new rockwool is those lava rocks is that the new hot medium of choice when going hydro now. I use to love rockwool with wick systems, I may go with both once the roots hit the reservoir the wicks are history. I am really really tossed on what type of system I am going to build. I remember once in my early years (I'm only 34) I used those cheap green pots as we didn't have net pots in those days. I cut out holes in the tops of my rubber maid totes for a cheap system and cut up the bottoms of the green pots to drop in. Lol now they sell those in kit form for 50 bucks.

 

[SONIC-D]

Ending the dirt grow tomorrow I think, I’m going to sleep on it tonight but I feel I’m going to make the switch tomorrow. I have no idea what system I will make or use I have about a $50.00 budget and need to transfer 10 plants I may only due 2 at a time to see what happens. Any ideas or suggestions?
Because of the dirt and I would have to transfer that out of the system I may go with 5 gal buckets and suspend the plants (plant stalks) in them with Styrofoam or the lids and a hole or something and a holder to hold the plants and submerge the roots in solution in the buckets with air pumped in something real basic no wick system this time. I don’t know yet but has any one else ever gone from dirt to hydro? I did a search only to find few saying it’s not easy and not a good idea but not too much information.

 

[SONIC-D]

Ok I didn't go to hydro yet I am going to let this entire dirt grow go all the way and see the yield, the length (time) of soil grow sux but I want to see the end results. I transplanted them to 5gal nursery pots from the 3gal they were in. that should be their final home I wanted to stay in 3 gals and wanted to flower early as I knew they doubled in size but they out grew their homes. I have those very large nusery pots as well for trees and such they have handles and are like 8 gallons I believe but that would be over kill I just have them. I may use them for mother plants and put 2 in each if I stay with soil.

 

[SONIC-D]

Hey peeps any of you have a good foliar feeing nute recipe or just water? For being a woman I have no sense of any of this nor do I understand what they consider directions on the box. My x use o toss the directions on any thing I never understood why until now.
I need help I want to start a foliar feeding. I have the following but if I can get some things from the hydro store I would go get it keep in mind this is a semi poor woman's grow.

In line of nutes that I have is a all purpose miracle grow I don't use its a liquid looks like laundry soap, my dyna grow (worked great at ¼ ½ strength and cheap, always used this stuff it was great and dyna bloom but they were out., super thrive vitamins like 1 drop per gallon all it is in the pics above in another post. I did add AWESOME BLOSSOMS instead of dyna bloom but change is good it's made by technaflora I believe and it 2-11-11 says it's good for foliar but not directly on the flower, that was weird what does that mean. The miracle grow says not o be sue for foliar, this is what I have to work with I can spend a 20 spot I like the 5.00 nutes but don't mind if its good is going to help and last long I just need to keep costs down

 

[David024]

Awesome! Hope it works out great for you. I will be watching the grow, and hopefully learn some things from it. I've never grown before so I doubt I could be of any help to you, but I can wish you the best of luck.

 

[SONIC-D]

Thanks David,

There getting close and I cant wait when I clipped for clones I had some flowers I dried them out and well its going to be a good crop for taste and hi any ways I may not yield a lot but its very tasty and a bowl did me good better than the last bag I bought. People are right though this dirt taste was better than some hydro but I really don’t want another hydro vs soil thread. They both have their place and I may stick to dirt I still haven’t decided, but im still able to go either way with the next grow see my clone thread for the next grow its just tuff for me to water plants.

I was reading through some of the forums and felt maybe I never realy watered them enough so I bough those stakes u put pop bottles on and it took 2 pop bottles each of water but made my meter read full wet is that proper? I was just going with 2 cups of water a day for 5 days on 6th plain water and nothing on Sunday but after that water its been 2 days and they look much better! However I didn’t water them for 2 days either and some browning on the leaves since I put in so much water they got too much nutes so that will have to be cut back too.

I’ve just never been able to grow any thing not even a house plant so watering for me is just not my thing that’s why I leaned towards hydro, I heard men are better at it any ways like making eggs and omelets men are better at cooking those then women I read that in several articles. Any way im going to read more about watering I know the stick you finger in to the first nub and check for dampness but im still not good at this watering thing it could be what ruins all my grows!

 

[SONIC-D]

Ok every one I’ve decided to stick with soil for another grow or 2 to really give it a try before I got back to hydro. The reason why you may ask is those watering stakes I got from harbor freight worked great! I got the watering thing down a bit better now and the plants seem to be much happier.

I found my old temp and humidity gage so after I bought those watering stakes I am still under 100.00 total for this inexpensive grow. I may sell the free metal halide I got to a friend for 35.00 and buy 2 florescent lights with 2 bulbs each for under $20.00 at home depot for my clones and mothers. Then I will be ahead another 15.00 brining me down to 85 or maybe I’ll buy some better nutes with that money being a single mom doing a poor moms grow I think this is coming out really good

I simply fill a pop bottle up about 2/3 of the way witch amounts to 2 cups of water. I stick them in the watering spikes every day by doing this I had to cut my nutes back by ½ of what I was using or it burns the plants this maybe because your watering down by the roots themselves. I also use to just water 2-3 cups of water a day but again because im watering deep by the roots I’m using less and getting better results.

I stuck to the same watering methods I stated before, Monday to Friday with nutes Saturday water only and Sunday nothing. I got that method from a story in high times it seems to work great especially now with the watering steaks. I may try one plant with a 2ltr bottle and see if it waters them when they need it these are suppose to work just like those aqua globes you see on TV but take normal pop bottles so they hold more water.

There made for out door deep root watering or if you leave for a week hence the use of a 2lter bottle. Any ways they helped me out a lot and you get 6 for $3 and since I need 18 for the 9 in veg and the 9 in flowering I only needed 3 packs all together for a total of 9.00 right now I only bought 1 pack to try as they only take about 10-15 minutes to water the plants with only 2 cups of water I can just wait until they are done and move them to the other plants but since there so cheap I will buy the other 2 packs now plus it will keep me from being confused what ones I watered. These also stay in the same spot so they help as a marker to rotate the plants and turn them under the lights (I rotate my plants under the lights)

 

[SONIC-D]

For another update the plant that sprouted into 2 plants finished early all the pistils turned brown and I felt it was done so I cut it down. I got just under ¾ of a oz dry from that plant it wasn’t a good plant I just tried to grow it since it grew into 2 plants. I thought it would yield well but I really didn’t have the room for it under the light and it was a bit funky.

It had a Nice taste good smell with a social stone buzz that lasted a good time so that alone saved me about $60 so being this was under $100 grow that brought it down to 40.00 grow I still have 9 plants going and I tell ya 4 are going to yield over a oz each just on the colas so that excites me.

But the rest looks even better there are 2 more of that type of strain and I did clone one of the other plants. I believe the one I cut down was referred to as “California orange” by him, at least after describing it to my friend I got it from he believes that’s what it was and said it isn’t amongst the best he ever sent me just one of the strains he started with. And I don’t really remember smoking it when he sent it to me so I dont know for sure if I can get my camera to take a beter picture maybe one of you can identify it.

Some of these are a type of kush and some are bubble gum for sure as I was told, the rest is a mix of other good bag seed. I keep all the seeds from really good stuff from a friend that grows out doors in another state and sends me few bags once in a while. He only grows high end stuff I usually can't afford it or get anything around here that good so I kept the seeds. I don’t know for sure the strains I just know what I was told and remember the bud it’s self and how good it was.

The rest of the bag seed is well known strains as well from him I just can't identify them yet I know I don’t have diesel yet as he never had that just other well known good strains and looking at them I feel I have worthy strains. I was going to order some seeds but since this turned out so well I don’t feel I need to go that route, saving me money. Maybe one day I will want to grow some other strain like white widow or something in the meantime if it all is as good as the runt of this litter I will be very happy.

 

[Cherma]

They all have some flowering on them but I read another post about cloning being better when in flowering stages.

How are the clones doing?
Any more pics of current clones?

 

[SONIC-D]

Sure I will post new picks right now but on the clone thread it’s the thread marked from soil to hydro but I decided not to go to hydro yet there still in soil here is the link

From soil to hydro transition

thanks for the interest!

 

[Cozmo]

How did this grow turn out?
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